Reading the Son of Sobek
by bookybookworm
Summary: Demigods of Camp Half-Blood and Magicians of the House of Life have been gathered together to... read? That's right, they are reading the story of Percy and Carter! SPOILERS FOR SON OF SOBEK! DON'T READ IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THAT! Read and Review! Please!
1. Prologue - They meet!

**Really quick 2-shot. Sorry if I get the Americans wrong – I'm British.**

**DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN PJATO OR KC. OR THE SON OF SOBEK.**

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_Sadie POV_

Hi, Sadie here! This is our little adventure with the Greek peeps. Let me introduce myself. Sadie Kane, daughter of Ruby Kane and Julius Kane (AKA Osiris) and host of Isis.

So, it all started when there was this huge flash of light that surrounded Carter (my brother), me, Zia (Carter's girlfriend) and Walt/Anubis. He's my boyfriend. [Shut up Carter.] Anyway, we all disappeared, and landed in a huge room with a few sofas in it. Another flash of light, and another group of kids flashed in. (I say kids; most of them were older than me.) There were two boys, and two girls. They all had dark hair apart from one of the girls, who was blonde. The blonde had grey eyes, that were really scary. [Shut up Carter. We all know you were scared too.] the other girl had black hair with a silver circlet resting on it. She had electric blue eyes. One of the boys looked a bit like Walt. He had a pale face, black eyes, black hair, and black clothes. The other had ocean green eyes, and had raven hair. He was wearing an orange t-shirt with writing that looked Greek. The blonde girl had similar clothing to the green eyes boy. The other girl had clothes that were… silver.

Green eyes narrowed his eyes. "Who are you? Where are we?"

"We don't know either!" Zia said, frowning.

"Hey… wait! I know you!" Carter said, pointing at green eyes.

"Yeah!" green eyes said, recognition dawning on his face. "You're Car-" then he stopped. "I can't say your name, can I?"

"No. but you're Percy, right?" Carter said. The rest of us looked between them.

"Percy… how do you know this guy?" the blonde said. Her intimidating eyes stared at us.

"You remember the _petsuchos _I told you about?" Percy said.

The blonde nodded suspiciously. "Car- I mean _he _helped me get rid of it."

"And you told him about… y'know?" the blonde asked. What on earth was she talking about?

"Yeah?" Percy said.

"Kelp head!" blue eyes slapped Percy in the back of the head.

"Look, who are you?" Walt said. "No offence or anything."

"I'm Percy, and this is Annabeth," Percy said, pointing to Annabeth. "This is Thalia, and the emo kid over there is Nico."

"I'm not emo!" Nico said furiously. "Anyway, who are you?"

"I'm Carter, this is my sister Sadie," Carter started, pointing at me. "This is Zia, and the emo dude over _there_ is Walt."

"I am not emo!" Walt said. Weird.

Suddenly, a letter and a thin book came floating down. Annabeth picked them up. "Hey, it's in Greek!"

_'Dear Carter, Sadie, Walt, Zia, Percy, Annabeth, Thalia, and Nico,' _the note said.

_'I know you must be very confused. Now, Percy and co are Greek Demigods, and Carter and co are Egyptian Magicians.' _The room exploded with questions.

Annabeth shouted, "Wait, there's more!"

_'I know you must have lots of questions. But we have sent you a book to explain everything. Hopefully. Anyway, please read it, and you can ask questions at the end._

_'From the amazing Gods,_

_'Apollo and Thoth.'_

Annabeth nodded grimly. Before she could say anything, Thalia said, "Apollo! Of course _he_ would do something like this! Lady Artemis must be so worried!"

"Come on, let's just read." Annabeth opened the book.

**"Getige-getd" **Annabeth stuttered. "Aaargh! It's in English! Stupid dyslexia!"

"Shall I read?" I asked sympathetically. [Yes, Carter, I can read!]

Annabeth nodded gratefully, and I took the book. I started to read.

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**AN: Yes, it's short! But it's the prologue!**


	2. Chapter 1 - They read!

**AN: Yay! The reading chapter! Enjoy!**

**DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN PJATO OR KC OR SON OF SOBEK! ALL RIGHTS GO TO RICK RIORDAN!**

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_Carter POV_

Sadie started to read:

**GETTING EATEN BY A GIANT CROCODILE was bad enough.**

"Carter?" Zia said. "You got eaten?"

I blushed, so Sadie took pity on me, and read again.

**The kid with the glowing sword only made my day worse.**

Annabeth stared at Percy with those scary eyes. Percy stared back, unflinching. Impressive.

**Maybe I should introduce myself.**

**I'm Carter Kane – part-time high-school freshman, part-time magician, full-time worrier about all the Egyptian gods and monsters who are constantly trying to kill me.**

"Excuse me?" the Greeks said.

"Egyptian Gods are real?" Annabeth said.

I looked around awkwardly, and motioned for Sadie to read.

**Okay, that last part is an exaggeration. Not ****_all_**** the gods want me dead. Just a lot of them – but that kind of goes with the territory, since I'm a magician in the House of Life. We're like the police for Ancient Egyptian supernatural forces, making sure they don't cause too much havoc in the modern world.**

**Anyway, on this particular day I was tracking down a rogue monster on Long Island. Our scryers had been sensing magical disturbances in the area for several weeks. Then the local news started reporting that a large creature had been sighted in the ponds and marshes near the Montauk Highway – a creature that was eating the wildlife and scaring the locals. One reporter even called it the Long Island Swamp Monster. **

"The one that ate our pegasi," Nico nodded, trying to look intelligent.

"Shut up death boy!" Thalia said.

"Death boy?" I said suspiciously.

"Oh, nothing," Percy said airily, but glared at Thalia. He looked scary. [Shut up Sadie. I bet I can glare a lot scarier than him!]

**When mortals start raising the alarm, you know it's time to check things out.**

**Normally my sister, Sadie, or some of our other initiates from Brooklyn House would've come with me. But they were all at the First Nome in Egypt for a week-long training session on controlling cheese demons **

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. Percy, Thalia, and Nico fell to the ground laughing. I think Annabeth's the only mature one out of them. Sadie, Zia and Walt winced at the memory, while Percy stuttered, "_Cheese_ demons?"

**(yes, they're a real thing – believe me, you don't want to know), so I was on my own.**

**I hitched our flying reed boat to Freak, my pet griffin, **

Percy _looked_ at Annabeth. "No," Annabeth said, instantly realising what Percy wanted.

**and we spent the morning buzzing around the south shore, looking for signs of trouble. If you're wondering why I didn't just ride on Freak's back, imagine two hummingbird-like wings beating faster and more powerfully than helicopter blades. Unless you want to get shredded, it's really better to ride in the boat.**

**Freak had a pretty good nose for magic. After a couple of hours on patrol, he shrieked, 'FREEEEEEK!' and banked hard to the left, circling over a green marshy inlet between two neighbourhoods.**

**'Down there?' I asked.**

**Freak shivered and squawked, whipping his barbed tail nervously.**

**I couldn't see much below us – just a brown river glittering in the hot summer air, winding through swamp grass and clumps of gnarled trees until it emptied into Moriches Bay. The area looked a bit like the Nile Delta back in Egypt, except here the wetlands were surrounded on both sides by residential neighbourhoods with row after row of grey-roofed houses. Just to the north, a line of cars inched along the Montauk Highway – vacationers escaping the crowds in the city to enjoy the crowds in the Hamptons.**

**If there really was a carnivorous swamp monster below us, I wondered how long it would be before it developed a taste for humans. If that happened … well, it was surrounded by an all-you-can-eat buffet.**

**'Okay,' I told Freak. 'Set me down by the riverbank.'**

**As soon as I stepped out of the boat, Freak screeched and zoomed into the sky, the boat trailing behind him.**

**'Hey!' I yelled after him, but it was too late.**

**Freak is easily spooked. Flesh-eating monsters tend to scare him away. So do fireworks, clowns and the smell of Sadie's weird British Ribena drink. (Can't blame him on that last one. Sadie grew up in London and developed some pretty strange tastes.)**

"Hey! They're good!" Sadie said. "Ahh, the taste of the blackcurrant…" Sadie was lost in Ribena heaven. **(AN: I LOVE RIBENA!)**

**I would have to take care of this monster problem, then whistle for Freak to pick me up once I was done.**

**I opened my backpack and checked my supplies: some enchanted rope, my curved ivory wand, a lump of wax for making a magical ****_shabti_**** figurine, my calligraphy set and a healing potion my friend Jaz had brewed for me a while back. (She knew that I got hurt a lot.)**

Zia raised an eyebrow. She looked beautiful. [Sadie!]

**There was just one more thing I needed.**

**I concentrated and reached into the Duat. Over the last few months, I'd got better at storing emergency provisions in the shadow realm – extra weapons, clean clothes, Fruit by the Foot and chilled six-packs of root beer – but sticking my hand into a magical dimension still felt weird, like pushing through layers of cold, heavy curtains. I closed my fingers round the hilt of my sword and pulled it out – a weighty ****_khopesh_**** with a blade curved like a question mark. Armed with my sword and wand, I was all set for a stroll through the swamp to look for a hungry monster. Oh, joy!**

**I waded into the water and immediately sank to my knees. The river bottom felt like congealed stew. With every step, my shoes made such rude noises – ****_suck-plop_****, ****_suck-plop –_**** that I was glad Sadie wasn't with me. She never would've stopped laughing.**

Sadie was laughing heartily right now.

**Even worse, making this much noise, I knew I wouldn't be able to sneak up on any monsters.**

**Mosquitoes swarmed me. Suddenly I felt nervous and alone.**

**_Could be worse_****, I told myself. ****_I could be studying cheese demons._**

"Yeah, while you were doing that, I was looking at _cheese demons_!" Sadie said, pouting.

**But I couldn't quite convince myself. In a nearby neighbourhood, I heard kids shouting and laughing, probably playing some kind of game. I wondered what that would be like – being a normal kid, hanging out with my friends on a summer afternoon.**

"You're not a normal kid?" Thalia said, frowning.

"Yeah… I was travelling the world with my dad."

**The idea was so nice I got distracted. I didn't notice the ripples in the water until fifty yards ahead of me something broke the surface – a line of leathery blackish-green bumps. Instantly it submerged again, but I knew what I was dealing with now. I'd seen crocodiles before, and this was a freakishly big one.**

**I remembered El Paso, the winter before last, when my sister and I had been attacked by the crocodile god Sobek. That ****_wasn't_**** a good memory.**

The Egyptians who had been there winced.

**Sweat trickled down my neck.**

**'Sobek,' I murmured, 'if that's you, messing with me again, I swear to Ra …'**

"Ra?" Nico said.

"The sun god. He's also the king of the gods," I said.

Thalia shuddered. "Imagine our sun god being the king of the gods!"

The rest of the Greeks winced.

"He'd make everyone say haikus for the rest of our lives!" Percy said.

"I'm sorry, what?" Zia said.

"Apollo's our Sun God. He loves Haikus, and isn't that mature," Annabeth said.

**The croc god had promised to leave us alone now that we were tight with his boss, the sun god. Still … crocodiles get hungry. Then they tend to forget their promises.**

**No answer from the water. The ripples subsided.**

**When it came to sensing monsters, my magic instincts weren't very sharp, but the water in front of me seemed much darker. That meant either it was deep, or something large was lurking under the surface.**

**I almost hoped it ****_was_**** Sobek. At least then I stood a chance of talking to him before he killed me. Sobek loved to boast.**

**Unfortunately, it wasn't him.**

**The next microsecond, as the water erupted around me, I realized too late that I should've brought the entire Twenty-first Nome to help me. I registered glowing yellow eyes as big as my head, the glint of gold jewellery round a massive neck. Then monstrous jaws opened – ridges of crooked teeth and an expanse of pink maw wide enough to gulp down a garbage truck.**

**And the creature swallowed me whole.**

Sadie burst out laughing, rolling on the floor. Tears streamed down her cheeks. "Only you, Carter!" she said. I glared at her.

**Imagine being shrink-wrapped upside down inside a gigantic slimy garbage bag with no air. Being in the monster's belly was like that, only hotter and smellier.**

Sadie sniggered.

**For a moment I was too stunned to do anything. I couldn't believe I was still alive. If the crocodile's mouth had been smaller, he might have snapped me in half. As it was, he had gulped me down in a single Carter-size serving, so I could look forward to being slowly digested.**

**Lucky, right?**

**The monster started thrashing around, which made it hard to think. I held my breath, knowing that it might be my last. I still had my sword and wand, but I couldn't use them with my arms pinned to my side. I couldn't reach any of the stuff in my bag.**

**Which left only one answer: a word of power. If I could think of the right hieroglyphic symbol and speak it aloud, I could summon some industrial-strength wrath-of-the-gods-type magic to bust my way out of this reptile.**

**In theory: a great solution.**

**In practice: I'm not so good at words of power even in the best of situations. Suffocating inside a dark, smelly reptile gullet wasn't helping me focus.**

**_You can do this_****, I told myself.**

**After all the dangerous adventures I'd had, I couldn't die like this. Sadie would be devastated.**

I looked at Sadie. "What?" she said.

"You didn't deny it!" I said gleefully. "Sadie actually **_CARES_**!"

Sadie was fuming silently.

**Then, once she got over her grief, she'd track down my soul in the Egyptian afterlife and tease me mercilessly for how stupid I'd been.**

"That's right," Sadie said, still red.

**My lungs burned. I was blacking out. I picked a word of power, summoned all my concentration and prepared to speak.**

**Suddenly the monster lurched upwards. He roared, which sounded really weird from the inside, and his throat contracted round me like I was being squeezed from a toothpaste tube. I shot out of the creature's mouth and tumbled into the marsh grass.**

**Somehow I got to my feet. I staggered around, half blind, gasping and covered with crocodile goo, which smelled like a scummy fish tank.**

**The surface of the river churned with bubbles. The crocodile was gone, but standing in the marsh about twenty feet away was a teenage guy in jeans and a faded orange T-shirt that said CAMP something. **

"Me!" Percy crowed. Then Annabeth hit him on the back of the head.

**I couldn't read the rest. He looked a little older than me – maybe seventeen – with tousled black hair and sea-green eyes. What really caught my attention was his sword – a straight double-edged blade glowing with faint bronze light.**

"Riptide!" Percy yelled, whipping out a ballpoint pen.

"_That's _your sword?" Sadie said, clearly unimpressed.

Percy uncapped the pen. Suddenly he was holding a glowing bronze sword.

"Ah," Sadie said. Percy smirked triumphantly, and touched the tip of the sword. It immediately shrunk into the pen.

**I'm not sure which of us was more surprised.**

**For a second, Camper Boy just stared at me. He noted my ****_khopesh_**** and wand, and I got the feeling that he actually ****_saw_**** these things as they were. Normal mortals have trouble seeing magic. Their brains can't interpret it, so they might look at my sword, for instance, and see a baseball bat or a walking stick.**

"The mist…" Thalia said spookily.

**But this kid … he was different. I figured he must be a magician. The only problem was I'd met most of the magicians in the North American nomes, and I'd never seen this guy before. I'd also never seen a sword like that. Everything about him seemed … ****_un-Egyptian._**

"Of course!" Percy said. "I'm Greek!"

**'The crocodile,' I said, trying to keep my voice calm and even. 'Where did it go?'**

"Tut, tut, manners, Carter!" Sadie admonished.

**Camper Boy frowned. 'You're welcome.'**

"See!" Sadie said.

**'What?'**

**'I stuck that croc in the rump.' He mimicked the action with his sword. 'That's why it vomited you up. So, you're welcome. What were you doing in there?'**

**I'll admit I wasn't in the best mood. I smelled. I hurt. And, yeah, I was a little embarrassed: the mighty Carter Kane, head of Brooklyn House, had been disgorged from a croc's mouth like a giant hairball.**

**'I was resting,' I snapped. 'What do you ****_think_**** I was doing? Now, who are you, and why are you fighting my monster?'**

**'****_Your_**** monster?' The guy trudged towards me through the water. He didn't seem to have any trouble with the mud. 'Look, man, I don't know who you are, but that crocodile has been terrorizing Long Island for weeks. I take that kind of personally, as this is my home turf. A few days ago, it ate one of our pegasi.'**

"Pegasi?" Zia said. I could almost see the cogs turning.

"Yeah," Thalia said nonchalantly. "Flying ponies."

"They're horses, Pinecone Face!" Percy said, and he looked offended.

"Oh, you didn't go there, did you?" Thalia said angrily.

Percy nodded smugly, but Annabeth slapped both of them across the face. "Shut up."

**A jolt went up my spine like I'd backed into an electric fence. 'Did you say ****_pegasi_****?'**

**He waved the question aside. 'Is it your monster or not?'**

**'I don't own it!' I growled. 'I'm trying to ****_stop_**** it! Now, where –'**

**'The croc headed that way.' He pointed his sword to the south. 'I would already be chasing it, but you surprised me.'**

**He sized me up, which was disconcerting since he was half a foot taller. **

Percy smirked at me.

**I still couldn't read his T-shirt except for the word CAMP. Round his neck hung a leather strap with some colourful clay beads, like a kid's arts-and-crafts project. He wasn't carrying a magician's pack or a wand. Maybe he kept them in the Duat? Or maybe he was just a delusional mortal who'd accidentally found a magic sword and thought he was a superhero. **

"Hey!" Percy said.

**Ancient relics can really mess with your mind.**

**Finally he shook his head. 'I give up. Son of Ares? You've got to be a half-blood, but what happened to your sword? It's all bent.'**

**'It's a ****_khopesh._****' My shock was rapidly turning to anger. 'It's supposed to be curved.'**

**But I wasn't thinking about the sword.**

**Camper Boy had just called me a ****_half-blood_****? **

"He means demigod, Carter!" Sadie said.

"How do you know that?" I asked.

"I do listen in mythology classes, you know!" Sadie retorted.

**Maybe I hadn't heard him right. Maybe he meant something else. But my dad was African-American. My mom was white. ****_Half-blood_**** wasn't a word I liked.**

"Oh, sorry," Percy said, embarrassed.

"S'alright," I mumbled.

**'Just get out of here,' I said, gritting my teeth. 'I've got a crocodile to catch.'**

**'Dude, ****_I_**** have to catch the crocodile,' he insisted. 'Last time you tried, it ate you. Remember?'**

"And I thought _Thalia _was the rude one!" Nico said.

"Yeah!" Thalia said. "Hey, wait… NICO!"

**My fingers tightened round my sword hilt. 'I had everything under control. I was about to summon a fist –'**

**For what happened next, I take full responsibility.**

"Good," Percy said.

**I didn't mean it. Honestly. But I was angry. And, as I may have mentioned, I'm not always good at channelling words of power. While I was in the crocodile's belly, I'd been preparing to summon the Fist of Horus: a giant glowing blue hand that can pulverize doors, walls and pretty much anything else that gets in your way. My plan had been to punch my way out of the monster. Gross, yes, but hopefully effective.**

**I guess that spell was still in my head, ready to be triggered like a loaded gun. Facing Camper Boy, I was furious, not to mention dazed and confused; so when I meant to say the English word ****_fist_**** it came out in Ancient Egyptian instead: ****_khefa._**

**Such a simple hieroglyph. You wouldn't think it could cause so much trouble.**

**As soon as I spoke the word, the symbol blazed in the air between us. A giant fist the size of a dishwasher shimmered into existence and slammed Camper Boy into the next county.**

"How could you?" Annabeth shouted. She stood up, but Percy – thankfully – stepped in.

"It's fine. It was all a misunderstanding!" he said, looking terrified.

She sat down, but she glared hard at me. It was all I could do not to run out of the room. [Shut up Sadie.]

**I mean I ****_literally_**** punched him out of his shoes. He rocketed from the river with a loud ****_suck-plop!_**** And the last thing I saw was his bare feet achieving escape velocity as he flew backwards and disappeared from sight.**

**No, I didn't feel good about it. **

Percy smiled…

**Well … maybe a tiny bit good. **

…Then frowned.

**But I also felt mortified. Even if the guy was a jerk, magicians weren't supposed to go around sucker-punching kids into orbit with the Fist of Horus.**

**'Oh, great.' I hit myself on the forehead.**

**I started to wade across the marsh, worried that I'd actually killed the guy. 'Man, I'm sorry!' I yelled, hoping he could hear me. 'Are you –?'**

**The wave came out of nowhere.**

Percy smiled sheepishly.

**A twenty-foot wall of water slammed into me and pushed me back into the river. I came up spluttering, a horrible taste like fish food in my mouth. I blinked the gunk out of my eyes just in time to see Camper Boy leaping towards me ninja-style, his sword raised.**

**I lifted my ****_khopesh_**** to deflect the blow. I just managed to keep my head from being cleaved in half, but Camper Boy was strong and quick. As I reeled backwards, he struck again and again. Each time, I was able to parry, but I could tell I was outmatched. His blade was lighter and quicker, and – yes, I'll admit it – he was a better swordsman.**

"Of course! He's the best swordsman in the last 300 years!" Annabeth said.

"I never knew you cared so much!" Percy smiled.

"Shut up, seaweed brain!" Annabeth said.

**I wanted to explain that I'd made a mistake. I wasn't really his enemy. But I needed all my concentration just to keep from getting sliced down the middle.**

**Camper Boy, however, had no trouble talking.**

**'Now I get it,' he said, swinging at my head. 'You're some kind of monster.'**

"Seriously?" Nico said. "Now I know why Thalia calls you kelp head."

**_CLANG!_**** I intercepted the strike and staggered back.**

**'I'm not a monster,' I managed.**

**To beat this guy, I'd have to use more than just a sword. The problem was I didn't want to hurt him. Despite the fact that he was trying to chop me into a Kane-flavoured barbecue sandwich, I still felt bad for starting the fight.**

"Good." I guess Annabeth still disliked me.

**He swung again, and I had no choice. I used my wand this time, catching his blade in the crook of ivory and channelling a burst of magic straight up his arm. The air between us flashed and crackled. Camper Boy stumbled back. Blue sparks of sorcery popped around him, as if my spell didn't know quite what to do with him. Who ****_was_**** this guy?**

"Perseus Jackson, bad boy supreme!" Percy said.

"You sound like Leo now," Thalia said. Percy hmphed.

**'You said the crocodile was ****_yours_****.' Camper Boy scowled, anger blazing in his green eyes. 'You lost your pet, I suppose. Maybe you're a spirit from the Underworld, come through the Doors of Death?'**

"Percy!" Annabeth sighed exasperatedly.

"Annabeth!" Percy mimicked. Wow, he was really immature.

**Before I could even process that question, he thrust out his free hand. The river reversed course and swept me off my feet.**

**I managed to get up, but I was getting really tired of drinking swamp water. **

Percy smirked, but tried to look sorry.

**Meanwhile, Camper Boy charged again, his sword raised for the kill. In desperation, I dropped my wand. I thrust my hand into my backpack, and my fingers closed round the piece of rope.**

**I threw it and yelled the command word '****_TAS!_****' – ****_bind –_**** just as Camper Boy's bronze blade cut into my wrist.**

**My whole arm erupted in agony. My vision tunnelled. Yellow spots danced before my eyes. I dropped my sword and clutched my wrist, gasping for breath, everything forgotten except the excruciating pain.**

"Sorry," Percy said.

**In the back of my mind, I knew Camper Boy could kill me easily. **

Percy looked horrified.

**For some reason he didn't.**

Then Percy sighed.

**A wave of nausea made me double over.**

**I forced myself to look at the wound. There was a lot of blood, but I remembered something Jaz had told me once in the infirmary at Brooklyn House: cuts usually looked a lot worse than they were. I hoped that was true. I fished a piece of papyrus out of my backpack and pressed it against the wound as a makeshift bandage.**

**The pain was still horrible, but the nausea became more manageable. My thoughts started to clear, and I wondered why I hadn't been skewered yet.**

**Camper Boy was sitting nearby in waist-deep water, looking dejected. My magic rope had wrapped round his sword arm, then lashed his hand to the side of his head. Unable to let go of his sword, he looked like he had a single reindeer antler sprouting next to his ear. **

Thalia and Nico snickered.

**He tugged at the rope with his free hand, but of course he couldn't make any progress.**

**Finally he just sighed and glared at me. 'I'm really starting to hate you.'**

**'Hate ****_me_****?' I protested. 'I'm gushing blood here! And you started all this by calling me a half-blood!'**

"Carter!" Sadie said, irritated.

**'Oh, please.' Camper Boy rose unsteadily, his sword antenna making him top-heavy. 'You can't be mortal. If you were, my sword would've passed right through you. If you're not a spirit or a monster, you've got to be a half-blood. A rogue demigod from Kronos's army, I'd guess.'**

"Kronos?" Zia asked.

Annabeth said, "The Titan lord."

**Most of what this guy said, I didn't understand. But one thing sank in.**

**'So when you said "half-blood" …'**

"Honestly, Carter!" Sadie said.

**He stared at me like I was an idiot.**

"You are," Sadie said. I stuck out my tongue.

** 'I meant ****_demigod_****. Yeah. What did you ****_think_**** I meant?'**

**I tried to process that. I'd heard the term ****_demigod_**** before, but it wasn't an Egyptian concept. Maybe this guy was sensing that I was bound to Horus, that I could channel the god's power … but why did he describe everything so strangely?**

**'What are you?' I demanded. 'Part combat magician, part water elementalist? What nome are you with?'**

**The kid laughed bitterly. 'Dude, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't hang out with gnomes. Satyrs, sometimes. Even Cyclopes. But not gnomes.'**

Percy grinned, while I _looked_ at him.

**The blood loss must have been making me dizzy. His words bounced around in my head like lottery balls: ****_Cyclopes_****, ****_satyrs_****, ****_demigods_****, ****_Kronos._**** Earlier he'd mentioned Ares. That was a Greek god, not Egyptian.**

"Finally, you're getting somewhere!" Sadie mock congratulated.

**I felt like the Duat was opening underneath me, threatening to pull me into the depths. ****_Greek … not Egyptian._**

**An idea started forming in my mind. I didn't like it. In fact, it scared the holy Horus out of me.**

**Despite all the swamp water I'd swallowed, my throat felt dry. 'Look,' I said, 'I'm sorry about hitting you with that fist spell. It was an accident. But the thing I don't understand … it should have killed you. It didn't. That doesn't make sense.'**

**'Don't sound so disappointed,' he muttered. 'But, while we're on the subject, you should be dead too. Not many people can fight me that well. And my sword should have vaporized your crocodile.'**

**'For the last time, it's not ****_my_**** crocodile.'**

**'Okay, whatever.' Camper Boy looked dubious. 'The point is I stuck that crocodile pretty good, but I just made it angry. Celestial bronze should've turned it to dust.'**

**'Celestial bronze?'**

**Our conversation was cut short by a scream from the nearby neighbourhood – the terrified voice of a kid.**

**My heart did a slow roll. I really was an idiot. I'd forgotten why we were here.**

**I locked eyes with Camper Boy. 'We've got to stop the crocodile.'**

**'Truce,' he suggested.**

**'Yeah,' I said. 'We can continue killing each other after the crocodile is taken care of.'**

**'Deal. Now, could you please untie my sword hand from my head? I feel like a freaking unicorn.'**

"Unicorn, seaweed brain?" Annabeth said.

"Sorry, _Wise Girl,_" Percy muttered under his breath.

**I won't say we trusted each other, but at least now we had a common cause. He summoned his shoes out of the river – I had no idea how – and put them on. Then he helped me bind my hand with a strip of linen and waited while I swigged down half of my healing potion.**

**After that, I felt good enough to race after him towards the sound of the screaming.**

**I thought I was in pretty good shape – what with combat magic practice, hauling heavy artefacts and playing basketball with Khufu and his baboon friends (baboons don't mess around when it comes to hoops).**

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. Zia just muttered, "Don't ask."

**Nevertheless, I had to struggle to keep up with Camper Boy.**

**Which reminded me, I was getting tired of calling him that.**

**'What's your name?' I asked, wheezing as I ran behind him.**

**He gave me a cautious glance. 'I'm not sure I should tell you. Names can be dangerous.'**

"Smart thinking!" Thalia said. Three mouths dropped. "What?" she demanded.

"You just…" Annabeth stuttered.

"Praised me!" Percy finished.

Thalia looked at him in horror. "What? N-no I didn't. Of course not."

"Suuuuure!" Nico smirked.

**He was right, of course. Names held power. A while back, my sister, Sadie, had learned my ****_ren_****, my secret name, and it still caused me all sorts of anxiety. Even with someone's common name, a skilled magician could work all kinds of mischief.**

Sadie grinned impishly.

**'Fair enough,' I said. 'I'll go first. I'm Carter.'**

**I guess he believed me. The lines around his eyes relaxed a bit.**

**'Percy,' he offered.**

**That struck me as an unusual name – British, maybe, though the kid spoke and acted very much like an American.**

**We jumped a rotten log and finally made it out of the marsh. We'd started climbing a grassy slope towards the nearest houses when I realized more than one voice was screaming up there now. Not a good sign.**

**'Just to warn you,' I told Percy, 'you can't kill the monster.'**

**'Watch me,' Percy grumbled.**

**'No, I mean it's ****_immortal._****'**

**'I've heard that before. I've vaporized plenty of ****_immortals_**** and sent them back to Tartarus.'**

**Tartarus? I thought.**

**Talking to Percy was giving me a serious headache. It reminded me of the time my dad took me to Scotland for one of his Egyptology lectures. I'd tried to talk with some of the locals and I knew they were speaking English, but every other sentence seemed to slip into an alternate language – different words, different pronunciations – and I'd wonder what the heck they were saying. Percy was like that. He and I ****_almost_**** spoke the same language – magic, monsters, et cetera. But his vocabulary was completely wrong.**

**'No,' I tried again, halfway up the hill. 'This monster is a ****_petsuchos – _****a son of Sobek.'**

**'Who's Sobek?' he asked.**

**'Lord of crocodiles. Egyptian god.'**

**That stopped him in his tracks. He stared at me, and I could swear the air between us turned electric. A voice, very deep in my mind, said: ****_Shut up. Don't tell him anymore._**

"Good," Sadie said. "No offence." She glanced at the Greeks.

**Percy glanced at the ****_khopesh_**** I'd retrieved from the river, then the wand in my belt. 'Where are you from? Honestly.'**

**'Originally?' I asked. 'Los Angeles. Now I live in Brooklyn.'**

**That didn't seem to make him feel any better. 'So this monster, this ****_pet-suck-o_**** or whatever –'**

**'****_Petsuchos_****,' I said. 'It's a Greek word, but the monster is Egyptian. It was like the mascot of Sobek's temple, worshipped as a living god.'**

**Percy grunted. 'You sound like Annabeth.'**

Annabeth glared at Percy. Sadie looked at Percy sympathetically. She said, "Is Annabeth like a walking dictionary, too? I feel for you, man."

Instantly she received two glares.

**'Who?'**

**'Nothing. Just skip the history lesson. How do we kill it?'**

"Seaweed brain." Annabeth rolled her eyes.

**'I told you –'**

**From above came another scream, followed by a loud ****_CRUNCH_****, like the sound made by a metal compactor.**

**We sprinted to the top of the hill, then hopped the fence of somebody's backyard and ran into a residential cul-de-sac.**

**Except for the giant crocodile in the middle of the street, the neighbourhood could have been Anywhere, USA. Ringing the cul-de-sac were half a dozen single-storey homes with well-kept front lawns, economy cars in the driveways, mailboxes at the kerb, flags hanging above the front porches.**

**Unfortunately, the all-American scene was kind of ruined by the monster, who was busily eating a green Prius hatchback with a bumper sticker that read MY POODLE IS SMARTER THAN YOUR HONOUR STUDENT. Maybe the ****_petsuchos_**** thought the Toyota was another crocodile, and he was asserting his dominance. Maybe he just didn't like poodles and/or honour students.**

"Carter." Zia rolled her eyes.

**Whatever the case, on dry land the crocodile looked even scarier than he had in the water. He was about forty feet long, as tall as a delivery truck, with a tail so massive and powerful it overturned cars every time it swished. His skin glistened blackish green and gushed water that pooled around his feet. I remembered Sobek once telling me that his divine sweat created the rivers of the world. Yuck. I guessed this monster had the same holy perspiration. Double yuck.**

"Ewwww!" Thalia said.

"Wow, Thals," Nico said. "I never knew you were such a girl."

**The creature's eyes glowed with a sickly yellow light. His jagged teeth gleamed white. But the weirdest thing about him was his bling. Round his neck hung an elaborate collar of gold chains and enough precious stones to buy a private island.**

**The necklace was how I had realized the monster was a ****_petsuchos_****, back at the marsh****_._**** I'd read that the sacred animal of Sobek wore something just like it back in Egypt, though what the monster was doing in a Long Island neighbourhood, I had no idea.**

**As Percy and I took in the scene, the crocodile clamped down and bit the green Prius in half, spraying glass and metal and pieces of airbag across the lawns.**

**As soon as he dropped the wreckage, half a dozen kids appeared from nowhere – apparently they'd been hiding behind some of the other cars – and charged the monster, screaming at the top of their lungs.**

**I couldn't believe it. They were just elementary-age kids, armed with nothing but water balloons and Super Soakers. I guessed that they were on summer break and had been cooling off with a water fight when the monster interrupted them.**

"Wow! They are brave!" Walt said. The Greeks jumped. I guess they forgot that Walt was there. He is very quiet.

**There were no adults in sight. Maybe they were all at work. Maybe they were inside, passed out from fright.**

**The kids looked angry rather than scared. They ran round the crocodile, lobbing water balloons that splashed harmlessly against the monster's hide.**

**Useless and stupid? Yes. But I couldn't help admiring their bravery. They were trying their best to face down a monster that had invaded their neighbourhood.**

**Maybe they saw the crocodile for what it was. Maybe their mortal brains made them think it was an escaped elephant from the zoo, or a crazed FedEx delivery driver with a death wish.**

**Whatever they saw, they were in danger.**

**My throat closed up. I thought about my initiates back at Brooklyn House, who were no older than these kids, and my protective 'big brother' instincts kicked in. **

"What big brother instincts?" Sadie snorted. "That's the first I've heard of them!"

**I charged into the street, yelling, 'Get away from it! Run!'**

**Then I threw my wand straight at the crocodile's head. '****_Sa-mir!_****'**

**The wand hit the croc on the snout, and blue light rippled across his body. All over the monster's hide, the hieroglyph for ****_pain_**** flickered.**

**Everywhere it appeared, the croc's skin smoked and sparked, causing the monster to writhe and bellow in annoyance.**

**The kids scattered, hiding behind ruined cars and mailboxes. The ****_petsuchos_**** turned his glowing yellow eyes on me.**

**At my side, Percy whistled under his breath. 'Well, you got his attention.'**

**'Yeah.'**

**'You sure we can't kill him?' he asked.**

**'Yeah.'**

**The crocodile seemed to be following our conversation. His yellow eyes flicked back and forth between us, as if deciding which of us to eat first.**

**'Even if you ****_could_**** destroy his body,' I said, 'he would just reappear somewhere nearby. That necklace? It's enchanted with the power of Sobek. To beat the monster, we have to get that necklace off. Then the ****_petsuchos_**** should shrink back into a regular crocodile.'**

**'I hate the word ****_should_****,' Percy muttered. 'Fine. I'll get the necklace. You keep him occupied.'**

**'Why do ****_I_**** get to keep him occupied?'**

**'Because you're more annoying,' Percy said. 'Just try not to get eaten again.'**

Percy smiled.

**'ROARR!' the monster bellowed, his breath like a seafood restaurant's dumpster.**

**I was about to argue that Percy was ****_plenty_**** annoying, **

"I agree with you!" Nico and Thalia said.

**but I didn't get the chance. The ****_petsuchos_**** charged, and my new comrade-in-arms sprinted to one side, leaving me right in the path of destruction.**

**First random thought: ****_Getting eaten twice in one day would be very embarrassing._**

"Yes, very," Sadie snickered.

**Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Percy dashing towards the monster's right flank. I heard the mortal kids come out from their hiding places, yelling and throwing more water balloons like they were trying to protect me****_._**

**The ****_petsuchos_**** lumbered towards me, his jaws opening to snap me up.**

**And I got angry.**

**I'd faced the worst Egyptian gods. I'd plunged into the Duat and trekked across the Land of Demons. I'd stood at the very shores of Chaos. I was ****_not_**** going to back down from an overgrown gator.**

**The air crackled with power as my combat avatar formed round me – a glowing blue exoskeleton in the shape of Horus.**

**It lifted me off the ground until I was suspended in the middle of a twenty-foot-tall, hawk-headed warrior. **

"Holy Hephaestus!" Annabeth shrieked.

**I stepped forward, bracing myself, and the avatar mimicked my stance.**

**Percy yelled, 'Holy Hera! What the –?'**

**The crocodile slammed into me.**

**He nearly toppled me. His jaws closed round my avatar's free arm, but I slashed the hawk warrior's glowing blue sword at the crocodile's neck.**

**Maybe the ****_petsuchos_**** couldn't be killed. I was at least hoping to cut through the necklace that was the source of his power.**

**Unfortunately, my swing went wide. I hit the monster's shoulder, cleaving his hide. Instead of blood, he spilled sand, which is pretty typical for Egyptian monsters. I would have enjoyed seeing him disintegrate completely, but no such luck. As soon as I yanked my blade free, the wound started closing and the sand slowed to a trickle. The crocodile whipped his head from side to side, pulling me off my feet and shaking me by the arm like a dog with a chew toy.**

**When he let me go, I sailed straight into the nearest house and smashed through the roof, leaving a hawk-warrior-shaped crater in someone's living room. I really hoped I hadn't just flattened some defenceless mortal in the middle of watching ****_Dr Phil._**

"Seriously, Carter?" Sadie said. "I know you're worried about the mortals, but Dr. Phil?"

**My vision cleared, and I saw two things that irritated me. First, the crocodile was charging me again. Second, my new friend Percy was just standing in the middle of the street, staring at me in shock. Apparently my combat avatar had startled him so much he'd forgotten his part of the plan.**

**'What the creeping crud is ****_that_****?' he demanded. 'You're inside a giant glowing chicken-man!'**

"Thank you Percy," Sadie said sincerely. "You have given me an incredible nickname for Carter!"

I groaned.

**'Hawk!' I yelled.**

**I decided that if I survived this day I would have to make sure this guy never met Sadie. They'd probably take turns insulting me for the rest of eternity. 'A little help here?'**

Sadie and Percy grinned at each other.

**Percy unfroze and ran towards the croc. As the monster closed in on me, I kicked him in the snout, which made him sneeze and shake his head long enough for me to extricate myself from the ruined house.**

**Percy jumped on the creature's tail and ran up his spine. The monster thrashed around, his hide shedding water all over the place, but somehow Percy managed to keep his footing. The guy must have practised gymnastics or something.**

**Meanwhile, the mortal kids had found some better ammunition – rocks, scrap metal from the wrecked cars, even a few tyre irons – and were hurling the stuff at the monster. I didn't want the crocodile turning his attention towards them.**

**'HEY!' I swung my ****_khopesh_**** at the croc's face – a good solid strike that should've taken off his lower jaw. Instead, he somehow snapped at the blade and caught it in his mouth. We ended up wrestling for the blue glowing sword as it sizzled in his mouth, making his teeth crumble to sand. That couldn't have felt good, but the croc held on, tugging against me.**

**'Percy!' I shouted. 'Any time now!'**

**Percy lunged for the necklace. He grabbed hold and started hacking at the gold links, but his bronze sword didn't make a dent.**

**Meanwhile, the croc was going crazy trying to yank away my sword. My combat avatar started to flicker.**

**Summoning an avatar is a short-term thing, like sprinting at top speed. You can't do it for very long, or you'll collapse. Already I was sweating and breathing hard. My heart raced. My reservoirs of magic were being severely depleted.**

**'Hurry,' I told Percy.**

**'Can't cut it!' he said.**

**'A clasp,' I said. 'There's gotta be one.'**

**As soon as I said that, I spotted it – at the monster's throat, a golden cartouche encircling the hieroglyphs that spelled SOBEK. 'There – on the bottom!'**

**Percy scrambled down the necklace, climbing it like a net, but at that moment my avatar collapsed. I dropped to the ground, exhausted and dizzy. The only thing that saved my life was that the crocodile had been pulling at my avatar's sword. When the sword disappeared, the monster lurched backwards and stumbled over a Honda.**

**The mortal kids scattered. One dived under a car, only to have the car disappear – smacked into the air by the croc's tail.**

**Percy reached the bottom of the necklace and hung on for dear life. His sword was gone. Probably he'd dropped it.**

**Meanwhile, the monster regained his footing. The good news: he didn't seem to notice Percy. The bad news: he ****_definitely_**** noticed me, and he looked mightily torqued off.**

**I didn't have the energy to run, much less summon magic to fight. At this point, the mortal kids with their water balloons and rocks had more of a chance of stopping the croc than I did.**

**In the distance, sirens wailed. Somebody had called the police, which didn't exactly cheer me up. It just meant more mortals were racing here as fast as they could to volunteer as crocodile snacks.**

"Oh, gods," Annabeth said. "Foolish mortals."

**I backed up to the kerb and tried – ridiculously – to stare down the monster. 'Stay, boy.'**

**The crocodile snorted. His hide shed water like the grossest fountain in the world, making my shoes slosh as I walked. His lamp-yellow eyes filmed over, maybe from happiness. He knew I was done for.**

**I thrust my hand into my backpack. The only thing I found was a lump of wax. **

"Wax?" Nico said.

"We use it to make wax figures, or _shabtis_. They help us in magic," Carter explained.

**I didn't have time to build a proper ****_shabti_****, but I had no better idea. I dropped my pack and started working the wax furiously with both hands, trying to soften it.**

**'Percy?' I called.**

**'I can't unlock the clasp!' he yelled. I didn't dare take my eyes off the croc's, but in my peripheral vision I could see Percy pounding his fist against the base of the necklace. 'Some kind of magic?'**

**That was the smartest thing he'd said all afternoon (not that he'd said a lot of smart things to choose from). **

Thalia snickered.

**The clasp was a hieroglyphic cartouche. It would take a magician to figure it out and open it. Whatever and whoever Percy was, he was no magician.**

**I was still shaping the lump of wax, trying to make it into a figurine, when the crocodile decided to stop savouring the moment and just eat me. As he lunged, I threw my ****_shabti_****, only half formed, and barked a command word.**

**Instantly the world's most deformed hippopotamus sprang to life in midair. It sailed headfirst into the crocodile's left nostril and lodged there, kicking its stubby back legs.**

The room burst out laughing.

**Not exactly my finest tactical move, but having a hippo shoved up his nose must have been sufficiently distracting. The crocodile hissed and stumbled, shaking his head, as Percy dropped off and rolled away, barely avoiding the crocodile's stomping feet. He ran to join me at the kerb.**

**I stared in horror as my wax creature, now a living (though very misshapen) hippo, tried to either wriggle free of the croc's nostril or work its way further into the reptile's sinus cavity – I wasn't sure which.**

**The crocodile whipped round, and Percy grabbed me just in time, pulling me out of its trampling path.**

**We jogged to the opposite end of the cul-de-sac, where the mortal kids had gathered. Amazingly, none of them seemed to be hurt. The crocodile kept thrashing and wiping out homes as it tried to clear its nostril.**

**'You okay?' Percy asked me.**

**I gasped for air but nodded weakly.**

**One of the kids offered me his Super Soaker. I waved him off.**

**'You guys,' Percy told the kids, 'you hear those sirens? You've got to run down the road and stop the police. Tell them it's too dangerous up here. Stall them!'**

**For some reason, the kids listened. Maybe they were just happy to have something to do, but, from the way Percy spoke, I got the feeling he was used to rallying outnumbered troops. He sounded a bit like Horus – a natural commander.**

Percy lifted his chin up. "Way to boost his ego!" Thalia muttered.

**After the kids raced off, I managed to say, 'Good call.'**

**Percy nodded grimly. The crocodile was still distracted by its nasal intruder, but I doubted the ****_shabti_**** would last much longer. Under that much stress, the hippo would soon melt back to wax.**

**'You've got some moves, Carter,' Percy admitted. 'Anything else in your bag of tricks?'**

**'Nothing,' I said dismally. 'I'm running on empty. But if I can get to that clasp I think I can open it.'**

**Percy sized up the ****_petsuchos._**** The cul-de-sac was filling with water that poured from the monster's hide. The sirens were getting louder. We didn't have much time.**

**'Guess it's my turn to distract the croc,' he said. 'Get ready to run for that necklace.'**

**'You don't even have your sword,' I protested. 'You'll die!'**

Percy smiled crookedly.

**Percy managed a crooked smile. 'Just run in there as soon as it starts.'**

**'As soon as ****_what_**** starts?'**

**Then the crocodile sneezed, launching the wax hippo across Long Island. The ****_petsuchos_**** turned towards us, roaring in anger, and Percy charged straight at him.**

**As it turned out, I didn't need to ask what kind of distraction Percy had in mind. Once it started, it was pretty obvious.**

**He stopped in front of the crocodile and raised his arms. I figured he was planning some kind of magic, but he spoke no command words. He had no staff or wand. He just stood there and looked up at the crocodile as if to say, ****_Here I am! I'm tasty!_**

"Percy!" Annabeth said.

"What? I had a plan!" Percy defended himself.

"And those plans work out perfectly!" Annabeth said sarcastically.

**The crocodile seemed momentarily surprised. If nothing else, we would die knowing that we'd confused this monster many, many times.**

**Croc sweat kept pouring off his body. The brackish stuff was up to the kerb now, up to our ankles. It sloughed into the storm drains but just continued spilling from the croc's skin.**

**Then I saw what was happening. As Percy raised his arms, the water began swirling counterclockwise. It started around the croc's feet and quickly built up speed until the whirlpool encompassed the entire cul-de-sac, spinning strongly enough that I could feel it pulling me sideways.**

"Woah," Zia, Sadie and Walt said. Percy merely grinned, and summoned a drop of water to roll around his finger.

**By the time I realized I'd better start running, the current was already too fast. I'd have to reach the necklace some other way.**

**One last trick, I thought.**

**I feared the effort might literally burn me up, but I summoned my final bit of magical energy and transformed into a falcon – the sacred animal of Horus.**

"You turn into a bird?" Annabeth screeched.

**Instantly, my vision was a hundred times sharper. I soared upwards, above the rooftops, and the entire world switched to high-definition 3D. I saw the police cars only a few blocks away, the kids standing in the middle of the street, waving them down. I could make out every slimy bump and pore on the crocodile's hide. I could see each hieroglyph on the clasp of the necklace. And I could see just how impressive Percy's magic trick was.**

Percy smiled.

**The entire cul-de-sac was engulfed in a hurricane. Percy stood at the edge, unmoved, but the water was churning so fast now that even the giant crocodile lost his footing. Wrecked cars scraped along the pavement. Mailboxes were pulled out of lawns and swept away. The water increased in volume as well as speed, rising up and turning the entire neighbourhood into a liquid centrifuge.**

"I can tell who your father is just by hearing that!" Annabeth said.

**It was my turn to be stunned. A few moments ago, I'd decided Percy was no magician. Yet I'd never seen a magician who could control so much water.**

**The crocodile stumbled and struggled, shuffling in a circle with the current.**

**'Any time now,' Percy muttered through gritted teeth. Without my falcon hearing, I never would've heard him through the storm, but I realized he was talking to me.**

**I remembered I had a job to do. No one, magician or otherwise, could control that kind of power for long.**

**I folded my wings and dived for the crocodile. When I reached the necklace's clasp, I turned back to human and grabbed hold. All around me, the hurricane roared. I could barely see through the swirl of mist. The current was so strong now it tugged at my legs, threatening to pull me into the flood.**

**I was ****_so_**** tired. I hadn't felt this pushed beyond my limits since I'd fought the Chaos lord, Apophis himself.**

**I ran my hand over the hieroglyphs on the clasp. There had to be a secret to unlocking it.**

**The crocodile bellowed and stomped, fighting to stay on its feet. Somewhere to my left, Percy yelled in rage and frustration, trying to keep up the storm, but the whirlpool was starting to slow.**

**I had a few seconds at best until the crocodile broke free and attacked. Then Percy and I would both be dead.**

**I felt the four symbols that made up the god's name.**

**The last symbol didn't actually represent a sound, I knew. It was the hieroglyph for ****_god_****, indicating that the letters in front of it – ****_SBK_**** – stood for a deity's name.**

"What about the o and the e?" Percy said.

"Egyptians don't use the vowels. So my name would be spelt as CRTR," I said.

Percy said, "Cool."

**When in doubt, I thought, hit the ****_god_**** button****_._**

**I pushed the fourth symbol, but nothing happened.**

**The storm was failing. The crocodile started to turn against the current, facing Percy. Out of the corner of my eye, through the haze and mist, I saw Percy drop to one knee.**

**My fingers passed over the third hieroglyph – the wicker basket (Sadie always called it the 'teacup')**

"Teacup?" Walt asked.

**that stood for the ****_K_**** sound. The hieroglyph felt slightly warm to the touch – or was that my imagination?**

**No time to think. I pressed it. Nothing happened.**

**The storm died. The crocodile bellowed in triumph, ready to feed.**

**I made a fist and slammed the basket hieroglyph with all my strength. This time the clasp made a satisfying ****_click_**** and sprang open. I dropped to the pavement, and several hundred pounds of gold and gems spilled on top of me.**

**The crocodile staggered, roaring like the guns of a battleship. What was left of the hurricane scattered in an explosion of wind, and I shut my eyes, ready to be smashed flat by the body of a falling monster.**

Zia clutched on to me, which was kind of nice. Of course Sadie ruined the moment by saying, "He's right here, you know."

Zia let go of me, sharpish.

**Suddenly, the cul-de-sac was silent. No sirens. No crocodile roaring. The mound of gold jewellery disappeared. I was lying on my back in mucky water, staring up at the empty blue sky.**

**Percy's face appeared above me. He looked like he'd just run a marathon through a typhoon, but he was grinning.**

**'Nice work,' he said. 'Get the necklace.'**

**'The necklace?' My brain still felt sluggish. Where had all that gold gone? I sat up and put my hand on the pavement. My fingers closed round the strand of jewellery, now normal-sized … well, at least ****_normal_**** for something that could fit round the neck of an average crocodile.**

**'The – the monster,' I stammered. 'Where –?'**

**Percy pointed. A few feet away, looking very disgruntled, was a baby crocodile not more than three feet long.**

**'You can't be serious,' I said.**

**'Maybe somebody's abandoned pet?' Percy shrugged. 'You hear about those on the news sometimes.'**

**I couldn't think of a better explanation, but how had a baby croc got hold of a necklace that turned him into a giant killing machine?**

"Someone evil did it," Sadie said.

**Down the street, voices started yelling, 'Up here! There's these two guys!'**

**It was the mortal kids. Apparently they'd decided the danger was over. Now they were leading the police straight towards us.**

**'We have to go.' Percy scooped up the baby crocodile, clenching one hand round his little snout. He looked at me. 'You coming?'**

**Together, we ran back to the swamp.**

**Half an hour later, we were sitting in a diner off the Montauk Highway. I'd shared the rest of my healing potion with Percy, who for some reason insisted on calling it ****_nectar._**** Most of our wounds had healed.**

**We'd tied the crocodile in the woods on a makeshift leash, just until we could figure out what to do with it. We'd cleaned up as best we could, but we still looked like we'd taken a shower in a malfunctioning car wash. Percy's hair was swept to one side and tangled with pieces of grass. His orange shirt was ripped down the front.**

**I'm sure I didn't look much better. I had water in my shoes, and I was still picking falcon feathers out of my shirt sleeves (hasty transformations can be messy).**

**We were too exhausted to talk as we watched the news on the television above the counter. Police and firefighters had responded to a freak sewer event in a local neighbourhood. Apparently pressure had built up in the drainage pipes, causing a massive explosion that unleashed a flood and eroded the soil so badly several houses on the cul-de-sac had collapsed. It was a miracle that no residents had been injured. Local kids were telling some wild stories about the Long Island Swamp Monster, claiming it had caused all the damage during a fight with two teenage boys, but of course the officials didn't believe this. The reporter admitted, however, that the damaged houses looked like 'something very large had sat on them'.**

"A freak sewer accident," Thalia said. "That's a first."

Sadie smirked as she read the next line.

**'A freak sewer accident,' Percy said. 'That's a first.'**

"Oh gods!" Thalia said. "I think like a kelp head! NOOOO!"

**'For you, maybe,' I grumbled. 'I seem to cause them everywhere I go.'**

**'Cheer up,' he said. 'Lunch is on me.'**

**He dug into the pockets of his jeans and pulled out a ballpoint pen. Nothing else.**

**'Oh …' His smile faded. 'Uh, actually … can you conjure up money?'**

"Seaweed brain." Three guesses who said that.

**So, naturally, lunch was on ****_me_****. I ****_could_**** pull money out of thin air, since I kept some stored in the Duat along with my other emergency supplies; so in no time we had cheeseburgers and fries in front of us, and life was looking up.**

**'Cheeseburgers,' Percy said. 'Food of the gods.'**

**'Agreed,' I said, but when I glanced over at him I wondered if he was thinking the same thing I was: that we were referring to ****_different_**** gods.**

**Percy inhaled his burger. Seriously, this guy could eat. 'So, the necklace,' he said between bites. 'What's the story?'**

**I hesitated. I still had no clue where Percy came from or what he was, and I wasn't sure I wanted to ask. Now that we'd fought together, I couldn't help but trust him. Still, I sensed we were treading on dangerous ground. Everything we said could have serious implications – not just for the two of us but maybe for everyone we knew.**

**I felt sort of like I had two winters ago, when my uncle Amos explained the truth about the Kane family heritage – the House of Life, the Egyptian gods, the Duat, everything. In a single day, my world expanded tenfold and left me reeling.**

**Now I was standing at the edge of another moment like that. But if my world expanded tenfold ****_again_**** I was afraid my brain might explode.**

**'The necklace is enchanted,' I said at last. 'Any reptile that wears it turns into the next ****_petsuchos_****, the Son of Sobek. Somehow that little crocodile got it round his neck.'**

**'Meaning someone ****_put_**** it round his neck,' Percy said.**

**I didn't want to think about that, but I nodded reluctantly.**

**'So, who?' he asked.**

**'Hard to narrow it down,' I said****_._**** 'I've got a lot of enemies.'**

**Percy snorted. 'I can relate to that. Any idea ****_why_****, then?'**

**I took another bite of my cheeseburger. It was good, but I had trouble concentrating on it.**

**'Someone wanted to cause trouble,' I speculated. 'I think maybe …' I studied Percy, trying to judge how much I should say. 'Maybe they wanted to cause trouble that would get our attention. ****_Both_**** of our attention.'**

"It could be Gaea, Kronos, or any of the gods," Percy said.

"It could be Set, Apophis, or any of the gods," I said.

**Percy frowned. He drew something in his ketchup with a French fry – not a hieroglyph. Some kind of non-English letter. Greek, I guessed.**

**'The monster had a Greek name,' he said. 'It was eating pegasi in my …' He hesitated.**

**'In your home turf,' I finished. 'Some kind of camp, judging from your shirt.'**

**He shifted on his bar stool. I still couldn't believe he was talking about pegasi as if they were real, but I remembered one time at Brooklyn House, maybe a year back, when I was certain I saw a winged horse flying over the Manhattan skyline. At the time, Sadie had told me I was hallucinating. Now, I wasn't so sure.**

"Told you so!" I said childishly.

**Finally Percy faced me. 'Look, Carter. You're not nearly as annoying as I thought. And we made a good team today, but –'**

**'You don't want to share your secrets,' I said. 'Don't worry. I'm not going to ask about your camp. Or the powers you have. Or any of that.'**

**He raised an eyebrow. 'You're not curious?'**

**'I'm ****_totally_**** curious. But until we figure out what's going on I think it's best we keep some distance. If someone – some****_thing_**** – unleashed that monster here, knowing it would draw both of our attention –'**

**'Then maybe that someone wanted us to meet,' he finished. 'Hoping bad things would happen.'**

**I nodded. I thought about the uneasy feeling I'd had in my gut earlier – the voice in my head warning me not to tell Percy anything. I'd come to respect the guy, but I still sensed that we weren't meant to be friends. We weren't meant to be anywhere ****_close_**** to each other.**

**A long time ago, when I was just a little kid, I'd watched my mom do a science experiment with some of her college students.**

**_Potassium and water_****, she'd told them. ****_Separate, completely harmless. But together –_**

**She dropped the potassium into a beaker of water, and ****_ka-blam!_**** The students jumped back as a miniature explosion rattled all the vials in the lab.**

**Percy was water. I was potassium.**

"That's deep," Sadie said.

**'But we've met now,' Percy said. 'You know I'm out here on Long Island. I know you live in Brooklyn. If we went searching for each other –'**

**'I wouldn't recommend it,' I said. 'Not until we know more. I need to look into some things on, uh, my side – try to figure out who was behind this crocodile incident.'**

**'All right,' Percy agreed. 'I'll do the same on my side.'**

**He pointed at the ****_petsuchos_**** necklace, which was glinting just inside my backpack. 'What do we do about that?'**

**'I can send it somewhere safe,' I promised. 'It won't cause trouble again. We deal with relics like this a lot.'**

**'****_We_****,' Percy said. 'Meaning, there's a lot of … you guys?'**

**I didn't answer.**

**Percy put up his hands. 'Fine. I didn't ask. I have some friends back at Ca– uh, back on my side who would love tinkering with a magic necklace like that, but I'm going to trust you here. Take it.'**

**I didn't realize I'd been holding my breath until I exhaled. 'Thanks. Good.'**

**'And the baby crocodile?' he asked.**

**I managed a nervous laugh. 'You want it?'**

**'Gods, no.'**

**'I can take it, give it a good home.' I thought about our big pool at Brooklyn House. I wondered how our giant magic crocodile, Philip of Macedonia, would feel about having a little friend. 'Yeah, it'll fit right in.'**

"You have a magic crocodile called Philip?" Nico said.

"Er, don't ask."

**Percy didn't seem to know what to think of that. 'Okay, well …' He held out his hand. 'Good working with you, Carter.'**

**We shook. No sparks flew. No thunder boomed. But I still couldn't escape the feeling that we'd opened a door, meeting like this – a door that we might not be able to close.**

**'You too, Percy.'**

**He stood to go. 'One more thing,' he said. 'If this somebody, whoever threw us together … if he's an enemy to both of us – what if we ****_need_**** each other to fight him? How do I contact you?'**

**I considered that. Then I made a snap decision. 'Can I write something on your hand?'**

**He frowned. 'Like your phone number?'**

**'Uh … well, not exactly.' I took out my stylus and a vial of magic ink. Percy held out his palm. I drew a hieroglyph there – the Eye of Horus. As soon as the symbol was complete, it flared blue, then vanished.**

**'Just say my name,' I told him, 'and I'll hear you. I'll know where you are, and I'll come meet you. But it will only work once, so make it count.'**

**Percy considered his empty palm. 'I'm trusting you that this isn't some sort of magical tracking device.'**

**'Yeah,' I said. 'And I'm trusting that when you call me you won't be luring me into some kind of ambush.'**

**He stared at me. Those stormy green eyes really were kind of scary. **

Percy stared at me. "They are?"

"Er…" I said.

**Then he smiled, and he looked like a regular teenager, without a care in the world.**

**'Fair enough,' he said. 'See you when I see you, C–'**

"Percy!" Annabeth said.

**'Don't say my name!'**

**'Just teasing.' He pointed at me and winked. 'Stay strange, my friend.'**

**Then he was gone.**

**An hour later, I was back aboard my airborne boat with the baby crocodile and the magic necklace as Freak flew me home to Brooklyn House.**

**Now, looking back on it, the whole thing with Percy seems so unreal I can hardly believe it actually happened.**

**I wonder how Percy summoned that whirlpool, and what the heck ****_celestial bronze_**** is. Most of all, I keep rolling one word around in my mind: ****_demigod._**

**I have a feeling that I could find some answers if I looked hard enough, but I'm afraid of what I might discover.**

**For the time being, I think I'll tell Sadie about this and no one else. At first she'll think I'm kidding. And, of course, she'll give me grief, but she also knows when I'm telling the truth. As annoying as she is, I trust her (though I would never say that to her face).**

My face was as red as a tomato.

**Maybe she'll have some ideas about what we should do.**

**Whoever brought Percy and me together, whoever orchestrated our crossing paths … it smacks of Chaos. I can't help thinking this was an experiment to see what kind of havoc would result. Potassium and water. Matter and antimatter.**

"Eh?" Percy said.

"Well, matter is-" Annabeth started.

Thalia interrupted. "Annabeth. Don't."

**Fortunately, things turned out okay. The ****_petsuchos_**** necklace is safely locked away. Our new baby crocodile is splashing around happily in our pool.**

"So that's where Simon came from!" Zia said.

**But next time … well, I'm afraid we might not be so lucky.**

**Somewhere there's a kid named Percy with a secret hieroglyph on his hand. And I have a feeling that sooner or later I'll wake up in the middle of the night and hear one word, spoken urgently in my mind:**

**_Carter._**

"Ooh, dramatic," Sadie said.

"OK, not that that wasn't a good story, but I need answers," Annabeth said. "Who, and what in Hades are you?"

* * *

**AN: OK, I lied, it's gonna be three chapters. Anyway, hope you enjoy, and review!**


	3. Chapter 2 - They talk!

**AN: Final Chapter! OK, this is where all their questions are answered. No reading in this one! Oh, and I am still writing **_**Emrys**_**, this is just a break from Merlin.**

**I've finally decided to sit down, and write this. Even though I've still got three more essays to write, all due in tomorrow. The Egyptian gods won't appear in this, sorry.**

**Woo hoo! 13 followers! And 16 favourites! And… only nine reviews. Seriously, can't anyone review? There are 1046 views, and if every single one of them reviewed, I would have had 1046 reviews! So, review please! They make me feel happy! And some constructive criticism! I've only had one helpful review so far! (Thanks **_**Shh**_**!)**

**Reviews:**

**Thanks to: **_**Shh**_** (guest), **_**Guest **_**(guest), **_**nicosnowangelo, Elise.V, Guest, 123, SilverHuntX, and Catri**_** (guest)**

_**Shh**_** – Sorry, I guess I've been reading too much fics with Nico being non-serious… I probably won't change his personality though, sorry. I'll try and keep him a bit more serious though.**

_**Guest**_** (1) – Thanks! And I will.**

_**Guest**_** (2) – Ok.**

_**Catri**_** – Thanks!**

**On with the story!**

**DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ANYTHING. The speech by Annabeth (near the end) was from the Kane Chronicles Wikia.**

* * *

_Percy POV_

"Who and what in the Hades are you?" Annabeth said. I agreed with her: we still knew nothing about these Egyptians.

"Um, we're Egyptian Magicians-" Sadie started.

Thalia interrupted, "Do you pull rabbits out of hats?"

"No," Sadie said, looking scornfully at Thalia. "We are real magicians, not some phoneys!"

"Anyway," Carter said hurriedly, sensing the discomfort in the air, "we follow the paths of Egyptian gods. We are all descendants of Pharaohs. And Sadie, Zia and I have previously hosted gods. Walt is currently hosting one now."

"What gods are you hosting?" Annabeth said eagerly.

I held up my hands. "Woah, woah, woah! What in Hades' name is 'hosting'?" I said.

"Don't use my father's name in vain!" Nico muttered.

Zia replied to my question. "The gods can reside in a human body if they descend from Pharaohs."

Wow. I looked at my friends in shock. I guess it's not much different than gods having children with mortals, though.

"So, what gods are you hosting?" Annabeth pressed. She sure looked excited.

"Er, well, I hosted Horus," Carter said nervously.

"The falcon guy?" Thalia and I asked simultaneously. We glared are each other.

"Yeah, yeah!" Sadie said. "I hosted Isis!"

"Iris?" Nico asked, confused.

"No, Isis!" Sadie said disdainfully. "Are you deaf?"

Nico growled. Zia rushed to speak. "I hosted Ra."

"The sun _god_?" I couldn't help myself.

"Your point is…?" Zia trailed off.

"Nothing!" I pasted an innocent look on my face. "So, Walt, who are you hosting?"

"Anubis," he said carefully. Nico jumped about a foot into the air.

"The _funeral_ god?" Nico said. "He's in you?"

"Yeah," Walt said grimly.

"So what about you?" Zia asked. "What's up with all the Greek names?"

"Well, we're Greek demigods, which mean sons and daughters of the Greek gods," Annabeth said.

"As in Perseus and Hercules?" Carter asked.

"Heracles is the Greek way," I corrected, and everyone looked at him, astonished. "What? I know some stuff!"

"Er, anyway, yes we are!" Thalia said brightly. "I'm the daughter of Zeus. But I'm also the Lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis?"

"You're the daughter of Zeus?" Zia's eyes widened. "What's a Hunter of Artemis?"

"We serve the Lady Artemis in her hunts in exchange for immortality!" Thalia said cheerfully. "Except if we die, of course." The Greeks immediately sobered, thinking of Bianca.

"And I'm the daughter of Athena," Annabeth said.

"So you're really clever?" Sadie said, her eyes narrowing. When Annabeth nodded, Sadie said, "Excellent. Guys, I think I've found a study buddy for Carter!" Annabeth and Carter scowled, while the rest of the room cracked up.

"Um, I'm the son of Hades," Nico said, after all laughter had stopped.

"The death god?" Walt asked curiously. Nico nodded. "Wow."

"Now it's my turn!" I said. "I'm the son of Posiedon, and bear the curse of Achilles."

"What's the curse of Achilles?" Sadie asked curiously.

"I bathed in the River Styx, because Nico made me." Cue glare at Nico. "So that makes me invulnerable, except for my weak spot." Sadie opened her mouth, but I said, "No, I'm not going to tell you. Only Annabeth knows."

"So what do we do now?" Annabeth said.

A bright light filled the room at that question, and we Greek demigods shouted, "Cover your eyes!"

The Egyptians immediately averted their eyes, but Carter couldn't help but peek. He instantly fell to the ground. **[Lol, like Jason in the Lost Hero!] **Apollo emerged from the light, and when the children looked back, they saw Carter on the ground. Sadie screamed, and dropped to the ground next to him. When she looked up, her eyes were rimmed with red.

"What did you do?" she screamed at the god. Apollo knelt beside Carter, and laid a hand on his forehead.

"It's alright," he said soothingly. "He's just asleep."

Thalia looked bewildered. "Wasn't he supposed to die?" Sadie glared at her. "It's the truth!" Thalia protested.

"He used to host a god," Apollo explained. "This means that the god has left some residue behind to cure him." **[I just made this up.]** We demigods looked awed.

Carter sat up, and said, "What was that?" He instantly rubbed his head, which was obviously hurting.

"It's fine!" Apollo soothed. "You're better."

Sadie said rudely, "Who are you, anyway?"

Annabeth and I glared at her. Thalia smiled. She hated Apollo. "I am Apollo! I am the god of Awesomeness!"

"_You're_ a god?" Sadie said, hands on hips.

"My thoughts exactly," Thalia muttered under her breath.

Apollo said, "Why yes, I am!" He ignored Thalia's comment. "In fact, I feel a haiku coming!

"_I am Apollo_

"_Sadie doesn't believe me_

"_I am so awesome."_*****

We all winced and groaned. Thalia muttered under her breath, "I can't believe I thought he was _hot_." I could hear her, but luckily, no-one else could. I snorted. Thalia turned her death glare on me.

"_This_ is the god of poetry?" I heard Carter saying to Zia. "Even _Sadie_ could write a better haiku!"

"Anyway," Apollo said, "the gods – both Greek and Egyptian – think that the Magicians and Demigods should help in defeating their enemies. Like G-" He cut off abruptly.

"What?" Annabeth asked immediately. "Who?"

"Ah, no-one," Apollo said. He clicked his fingers and disappeared.

"Well _that_ was strange," Thalia said cheerfully. "Thank the Gods he's gone!"

"You don't like him?" Sadie said. "He's kinda hot… but nothing compared to Walt!" she added hurriedly, after she saw Walt's glare.

"He _is_ the Sun God," I said, looking at Thalia and remembering when I first met Apollo.

"Shut up, Kelp Head!" Thalia shouted, her cheeks colouring. Everyone except Nico looked confused, who, in fact, was sniggering slightly.

"What?" Sadie said suspiciously.

"Oh, when we first met Apollo, before Thalia became a Hunter of Artemis-" I started, but was interrupted by Annabeth.

"So this was when I was kidnapped."

"Yup," I said, popping the 'p'. "Anyway, Thalia said he was hot, and I said that he was the sun god, so he has to be hot!"

Everyone laughed, but Thalia kept on glaring.

Another flash of light interrupted the laughter. This time, everyone shielded their eyes. "Lady Hestia!" Nico gasped, and everyone turned to look. She was in the form of an eight year old girl, as always. Her eyes glowed brightly.

"Hello, all," she said in a soft voice. "After my nephew, Apollo came back, I decided to explain things properly to you."

"I know you!" Carter said. "You're the goddess of the Hearth!"

"Yes," Hestia said. "Gaia is rising. She has the help of Setne, and they are plotting to defeat the demigods and magicians."

Cries of "Gaia!" and "Setne!" were heard all around. I vaguely knew who Gaia was: Mother Nature. But she was supposedly evil. I sighed. Great.

Hestia nodded sadly. She left in a flash of white light, and we all shielded our eyes.

* * *

I woke up in my cabin. The sweet smell of the sea hung around me, and when I rolled over, Tyson was snoring quietly in the bunk opposite. I scratched my head, then remembered what had happened. Gaia was rising. And she had some help from someone Egyptian. Someone called Setee? I was jolted out of my thoughts by a sharp rap at the door. I got up to find Annabeth clutching Daedalus' laptop.

"What are you doing here?" I asked sleepily.

"I was researching Setne," Annabeth said, and showed me her laptop. "He was the son of Ramesses the Great, and he battled monsters, adventured in the Duat, conquered gods, and broke into sacred tombs. He created curses that couldn't be lifted and unearthed secrets that should have stayed buried. He, under the shadow of his father's, had made a name of his own by stealing the Book of Thoth and creating complicated spells including a shadow execration, and by making a version of the Book of Overcoming Apophis, which includes spells for capturing shadows for execration, spells to make the gods reveal their true form and their secret names. But he died before he tried it, thank the gods. But he tried to escape the Egyptian underworld, many times."

"Wow," I said, my eyes wide. How could one man do all this? "So what do we do?"

"We wait," Annabeth said. "Until we have the means of contacting the Egyptians."

"Well," I said uneasily. "If you want to speak to the Egyptians, I can call them." Annabeth's eyebrow shot up. "I can say _his_ name, and he'll come. We do need to talk to them."

"Alright. But we need Nico and Thalia, before we call them," Annabeth said. We called Nico from the Hades cabin, and Thalia, who we discovered was in the Zeus cabin, came with us to the beach.

"_Carter,_" I said, and a strange feeling swept over me, we waited.

**A/N: Finished! I will do a sequel, don't you worry! But it won't be out until much later, probably. Hope you enjoyed it, and REVIEW! Or I'll set Gaia, Kronos, Setne, and Apophis onto you! *Cackles evilly***

**REVIEW!**


	4. Sequel

Hey guys! The sequel is finally up! It's called Reading the Staff of Serapis

Go check it out!

~Bookybookworm~


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